FROM 2014
https://www.businessinsider.com/edward-snowden-and-wikileaks-2014-1
Edward Snowden's Relationship With WikiLeaks Should Concern Everyone
After the NSA contractor outed himself in Hong Kong on June 9, he parted ways with the journalists he met there and went underground.
On June 12, the same day he leaked specific details of NSA hacking in China to the South China Morning Post, Snowden contacted WikiLeaks. The organization subsequently paid for his lodgings and sent top advisor Sarah Harrison to help.
(Some suspect Russia and/or WikiLeaks contacted Snowden before June 12, but there is no clear evidence of that.)
Harrison accompanied Snowden as he met with Russian officials — reportedly in the Kremlin consulate — and WikiLeaks bought his ticket to Moscow on June 23.
Snowden and his closest supporters contend that he was on his way to Latin America when the U.S. government stranded him in Moscow, but there are several reasons to doubt that claim.
First, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told Janet Reitman of Rolling Stone that he advised Snowden against going to Latin America because "he would be physically safest in Russia."
Second, the U.S. revoked Snowden's passport by June 22, and the unsigned Ecuadorian travel document acquired by Assange was void when Snowden landed in Moscow.
WikiLeaks told BI that the Ecuadorian document was meant to help Snowden leave Hong Kong, which raises the question of why he would need it if his passport was still good. The organization has not explained why it would send the NSA-trained hacker to Russia knowing he would land with a void passport and a bunk travel document.